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Snooping on competition is most popular Net use

The most popular use of the Internet in UK corporations is to snoop on the competition according to a recent survey from IDC.

The survey, commissioned by Hewlett-Packard to show the impact of the Information age on UK organisations, revealed that around 30% of respondents use the Internet for looking up competitor information.

According to the report, proper uses of Internet technologies from the very basic such as file transfer, communication with customers and suppliers, all get short shrift in preference to snooping.

Only 50% of respondents had a web page, and of these the most popular use is for advertising material, or because everybody else has one.

Despite the disappointingly low uptake of Internet technologies, the survey showed a massive 96% of UK organisations are making or are planning to make changes to their organisations due to the information age.

Driving the deployment of IT are organisations in the service area, with banks especially aggressive, but other industries are being left behind, said IDC.

Speaking at a recent press conference, Confederation of British Industry director general Adair Turner, said that UK and European organisations are severely lagging behind the US in the adoption of Internet technologies.

"Businesses will be in trouble if they don't develop the required skills now." he said.

Also speaking at the conference, Simon Darling, electronic commerce manager at Unilever, said: "Businesses and government need to break the current inertia surrounding the Internet. There is very little initiative and understanding at the top. The UK and Europe are way behind the US. A fully integrated view is needed. We need to educate leaders in both the public and private sector and set up dedicated teams. Europe is currently obsessed with regulation, it needs to recognise that regulation is not the most important challenge."